Session 39 - Next Steps
General Summary
36 Amberspell
The swim back to the surface was long, but uneventful and the party found themselves breaking the surface of the Bay in the very early morning. From the positions of the stars above, Denye guessed that it was another two hours or so before dawn...and the promised return of the Lazy Susan. A quick discussion ensued about what to do while waiting. Denye suggested heading out toward the island, but dropped the idea when she realized how far it was. Janora offered that they had enough magical energy for one more Water Walk spell, but suggested that it might better to wait for the second half of the wait. Vellikar stayed in pilot whale shape for as long as he could, floating peacefully on the surface so that others could hold on. Shortly after the druid changed back, as the sky to the east was just beginning to lighten, Janora judged enough time had passed and cast Water Walk. Still, just trying to stay above the waves had been work and most of the party collapsed onto their backs, using the surface of the water like a slowly rocking cot. As the sun truly began to rise, the small shape of a boat became visible, coming from the direction of the coast. Before the sun was more than a finger width above the horizon, Captain H'ralk Stormwave was pulling along side and tossing a rope ladder over the side for them all to climb up and into the boat. Just in time too, Vellikar, last in line dropped into the water with a splutter before swimming over to the ship and climbing aboard. "What ho, here you all," said the captain with a broad grin. Turning to the other figure in the boat he added, "You see, Alexi, I told you they would be back." Turning back to the party H'ralk asked, "So did you find what you all were lookin fer?" "Sadly no," replied Janora as they wrung water out of their robes. When the witch said nothing further, Denye added, "We found lots of interesting things, but not what we were after." "Too bad, still all of you survived," said the half-orc, "that at least counts for something...especially after some of the horror stories my partner here has been telling me." Ranunkel sighed, "Oh there were horrors. Quite a few undead skeletons for a start." Jilken nodded, "And then that clockwork leviathan thing...some sort of steam powered monster. Tho it sank pretty quick after a few well placed blows." "We sent it back to the depths," added Denye, nodding vigorously. "Indeed," exclaimed Alexi, "that is very good to here. And did you find the gate to Hell?" "Gate to Hell?" asked Denye with both horror and fascination. Alexi, a middle-aged human with shoulder length hair, more salt than pepper and wearing faded tunic and trews, nodded, "Supposedly that's why the water in the chasm is hot. Can't rightly say as I ken anyone who's seen it." Ranunkel chuckled gruffly, "I whole-heartedly believe that, that water was getting mighty hot." "Maybe that's what that metal monster was guarding," offered Jilken. Janora scoffed, "We were so deep and we didn't see any sign of a bottom. It's more likely that it goes down to the heart of the planet." "Right," said Denye, mostly to herself, "find out more about the gate to hell before we go back." Looking up at Alexi, she asked, "You wouldn't happen to know which Hell exactly?" Alexi laughed and shook their head, "No my curious friend, I can't say I do. As I said, very few who dive into the Chasm have ever come back to tell the tale. That you all came back was either exceptional luck or great skill." "A little bit of both," replied Denye with a shrug of her wing. Having listened silently while he got his breath back, Ell asked suspiciously, "Pardon the question, but who are you exactly?" "Oh, I am Alexi Stormwave, H'ralk's spouse," they replied with a smile and a bit of a bow, "came out to give H'ralk a hand with the sails." "Speaking of which," said Captain H'ralk, "where ye be bound now? Back to Cliffside?" "I don't think we've actually discussed that yet," began Janora. Denye suggested, "While we are out here, I would quite like to check out that ruin." "Me too," said Ell, "and maybe a nap on the way." "The ol' lighthouse,' nodded H'ralk, "Aye, I reckon I ken get'cha close, but you'll have to swim a bit." With that the pair pulled in the slack on the sails and the boat began heading southwest once more.In only a handful of hours, Captian H'ralk brought the Lazy Susan to a halt about 100 yds off the shore of the largest of what appeared to be a scattered archipelago of half submerged points and ridges of stone. This island, maybe 100ft x 50ft, made of rough looking stone, did indeed sport a strange ruined tower. Carved to resemble the shape of a woman, she was cut off at the waist as the upper floors had been destroyed some time ago. The top floor stood open to the sky and strange long streamers of gossamer threads danced in the wind like pennants. The other thing the island boasted were the six wyverns who lay sunning themselves on the stony shore. As the rest of the party once more dove into the water, Denye cast Fly on herself and flew upwards to get a better look. She reported that there was a seventh of the beasts on the far side of the island, but there was also another beach on that side with a much shorter path to the tower. Agreeing that stealth was a better option, Vellikar WildShaped into a pilot whale once more and began towing the party around to that further beach. When they got there, Ranunkel got a better look at the rock itself and shook his head. "Shale," he spat, "well we aren't going to be climbing up these cliff faces. Looks like the path will be the best option. As the party began making their way up the beach, Denye flew closer to get a better look at the tower. Made from an alabaster marble, the surface of the stone pitted from the harsh salt spray, heavy cracks showing that the impact had come from behind. Flying up to examine the gossomer flags, the wizard caught sight of a seagull caught by the flags and quickly realized that these were webs. Claws already half-way set to create a Fireball, Denye called over the mind link, "There is at least one giant spider in here, probably more. Do we want to try and fight them now or from inside?" Janora asked, "Is there a reason we need to start a fight?" "Not particularly," replied Denye, "But I'd rather be prepared for the fight, than have them coming to us if we get stuck in their webs." "Inside might be better," Ell suggested, "If we draw the spiders out, then it will alert the wyverns and then we'd have two problems." As this conversation was happening, the rest of the party had been making their way from the landing point up to the set of double doors that were clearly visible between the feet. Ranunkel and Jilken both got there first and while the elf spun to keep an eye on the beasts the dwarf began trying the door. They threw a heavy shoulder into the door, but the lock was stout and while it groaned, it did not break. As the rest gathered at the door, they did come to the attention of several of the beasts. As the wyverns began to rose and advance, one lifted it’s head as if to bugle a warning. It never got the chance as Jilken’s Banishing bolt sent it elsewhere before it could warn the others. Meanwhile, Ell attempted to pick the lock, but it had gotten deformed and he couldn’t get it open. Frustrated, he sent two Eldritch Blasts point blank at the lock. The force of the spells threw the doors open and they slammed into the walls within. As the doors blew open, Janora's crow claw grew cold and the witch called out, "There are definitely undead in there. Just try to avoid any bones or bodies that you see." And bones there were, several large piles of them. The room itself was mostly round, made of the alabaster marble and contained no other doors or windows. What it did contain were the piles of bones, lots of old, dried blood splatters and a spiral staircase in the center leading up. The occasional smell of rotting meat wafted down from the floor above Seeing no immediate threats, the party carefully filed inside and with Denye zipping in behind the others, they attempted to close the doors once more. The hinges had gotten warped from the force of Ell's blast, but the doors were able to at least stay closed, if not withstand rampaging wyvern. Some of the bones were clearly animal....many more were humanoid. Not all were intact, but other than the occasional scorch mark there was little side of how they had died. Trying to follow Janora's advice, the team avoided touching the piles, but all that could be see were a couple of rusty longswords and the occasional bit of cloth. Seeing nothing else of value, Jilken began carefully making her way up the stairs. As the Aiel fighter's foot landed on the ninth step, it triggered a glyph of warding and activated the waiting sentinels. Each of the bone piles began to shake and writhe as three obscene skeletal constructs formed before turning their attention to the party. Jilken was the first to respond, quickly sending two crossbow bolts into the construct closest to her friends. Ranunkel was right behind the elf, raising his staff and sending a Lightning Bolt through two of the monsters. Janora who up until this point had just been sprawled across their dog's back, sat up and sent the dog neared the undead construct before the large husky let out a loud bark that rattled it's bones. It wasn't enough to knock it over, so the witch threw a Firebolt at the creature. That was enough to send that one crumbling to the ground, now no more than loose bones. The two remaining constructs both raised those rusty longswords and rushed the party. One managed to leave a heavy slice down Ranunkel's arm. The other took a swing at Ell, but the young man ducked under the blade as it passed harmlessly over his head. As Ell ducked, he threw two Eldritch Blasts at the monster. The first hit it square in the chest pushing it away, but the second blew a chunk of stone out of the wall. Vellikar called up a Flaming Sphere and sending it slamming into the back of the construct menacing the dwarven druid. Denye flew up a bit to get a view over the heads of the others and tossed a small bead of fire into the room that exploded into a fireball, encompassing both of the remaining constructs. That was enough to cause one of them to crumple to ash. Jilken finished off the other creature with two more bolts from her crossbows. As the silence descended, Vellikar laid a hand on Ranunkel's shoulder and a wave of healing energy washed down the arm, healing the slice. Seeing that the threat was dealt with Jilken continued up the stairs to the second floor. As the elf disappeared to the floor above, through the mental link, Janora asked, "What do you see? Any spiders?" Jilken sent back, "No sign of anything moving, there are three large...nests I suppose. Rotting fish, other meats, and seashell scattered on the floor and there are quite a few cobwebs on the ceiling. There's also a chest." At the mention of a chest, Ell pushed himself away from the wall and scampered up the stairs. The rest of the party followed and found it much as Jilken had described. Three large nests or beds built up out of driftwood, seaweed, along with skins and furs took up the majority of the room. The smell of the room was only bearable with the occasional salt-laden breeze coming down from the third floor above. Denye, Jilken and the others began searching and rummaging through the nests while Ell went directly for the chest. Pulling out his lockpicks, he bent a knee and quickly set to work. Beyond finding more decaying food, the team searching the nests found several interesting objects; a small sack of strange pods filled with blue and green liquid, two small balls of green leaves tightly bound together, and a silver circlet with inset pearls and onyx. The lock proved to be little challenge and standing, Ell pushed the lid open. As he did so a flash of cold, necrotic energy passed over the young man. Shaking his head in puzzlement, Ell quickly became very aware of the spiderwebs draped thickly along the ceiling. Concentrating on the contents of the chest, he found three shriveled heads, five vials of various liquids, and a tin labeled Dreamweaver Biscuits. Picking up the tin, Ell opened it to reveal ten cookies. Denye immediately called out, "Ell, don't eat the cookie." Ell looked surprised, but quickly put the lid back on the tin. The Corva wizard came over and explained, "This probably isn't a good time to try something that could mess with your mind. Let's take it back to the boat and we can take a look at it later." Ell nodded, "You're probably right. Do you think you could heal me a bit?" Denye chirp-chuckled and cast Cure Wounds on the lad and he gained color and stopped weaving on is feet. "So," asked Denye, looking around, "are we ready to head up to the third level?" While the others were having this conversation, Janora had closed their eyes and with a whispered thought sent their barghast spirit invisibly up the stairs to check for traps. The spirit reported none, but the smell of spiders was strong, so strong in fact that while it sensed a handful of larger creatures, the spirt was unable to see them. Opening their eyes once more, the witch nodded, "Seems like we should finish. There aren't any more traps, but there are definitely spiders up there." Ell shivered, "Maybe it's some sort of giant centipedes that also spins webs?" "What?" asked Ranunkel giving the young man a puzzled look. Ell held up his hands, "I'm just saying there are other things it might be?" Using his Stone Sense, the dwarf druid, confirmed that there was one large creature and about half a dozen others, although none appeared to be moving. Pulling his hand away from the wall, Ranunkel just shook his head at the young man and started up the stairs, following the others. About two-thirds of the walls of the third floor remained and these were thickly covered in spider webs as well. The long streamers of gossemer webbing trailed out of the broken side in the mid-morning light. Glancing around quickly revealed five or six humanoid cocoons among the webs. Coming up the stairs last, Janora was on alert and in the bright light caught sight of several medium sized spiders clinging to the walls as well as a much larger giant tarantula directly in front of the staircase. In a stage whisper the witch asked, "Does anyone else see the gigantic spiders on the walls? If not, there are giant spiders on the wall and biggest is right in front of us?" At the mention of spiders, Ell's hands started to twitch and he began to back down the stairs, very slowly. Catching sight of the giant spider, Jilken smiled wolfishly and fired both crossbows in quick succession at the monster and with that the fight was on. As the spider let out a squeal of pain, Denye followed up with a Guiding Bolt, outlining it in bright white light that vibrates and hums with a clear bell tone. Jilken sent a quick, "Thank you," over the telepathic rings before firing again at the large spider. The first bolt landed deep in the thorax, but when she whipped up the Rainbow Reaper for a second shot, it jammed and the elf had to unjam it, cursing as she did so. At the sight of the giant trantula, Ell let out a scream and dashed down the stairs. As Ranunkel dashed down the stairs as well, Janora asked, "Where the fuck are you going? We came up here to kill these things." Looking over his shoulder, Ranunkel said, "That spider is VERY large and I am very small." As he did so, five more spiders, these more the size of a dog, dropped from the walls and began moving toward the team on the third floor as another four appeared from the ceiling of the second floor. On the second floor, one dropped down next to Ell, who screamed even louder and tried to dodge out of the way, but his foot got caught with a bite. Two more scuttled over to Ranunkel and tried taking bites at the dwarf. He managed to ward off one with his staff, but the other snuck in and delivered it's poison into his shoulder. Hearing the cries from below Janora just shook their head and turned to look at the spiders around them. The large husky turned as well and let out an echoing bark that threw the spider out the broken side of the tower and it disappeared from view. Chuckling, Janora sent a Firebolt at the tarantula, but it went wide and hit one of the cocoons. The webbing burst into flame, but was soon put out by the oozing contents of said cocoon. Vellikar, low on magical energy, opted for his crossbow and scored a hit on the giant monster as it raced across the floor and pounced on the husky, pinning both dog and Janora under it's hairy legs. Seeing this Denye threw up a Storm Sphere that began to shred the webbing and batter the various spiders, leaving all of the party members untouched, each surrounded by a golden glow. As she moved out of the cluster of people, she flicked a claw and a bolt of lightning slammed into the tarantula. Whipping out her lightning spear Jilken rushed at the giant spider pinning her friends. Stabbing it in the side, she threw it off Janora and the dog as the spider screeched in pain. Two more quick stabs with the spear silenced the beast and the legs quickly turned inward. Downstairs, Ell fired off two Eldritch Blasts at the spider next to him before running away. Both blasts missed as the creature caught the warlock in the leg, leaving him stumbling. Ranunkel caught another bite as he stepped down to get a better view before slamming his staff into the nearer spider with a thunderous boom that threw the spider off the ceiling. It turned and hissed at the druid as did the one chasing Ell, as they did so swarms of small black spiders crawled out of the mouths and began to swarm all over the body of the brood spiders. Two more of the big spiders rushed up the stairs behind Ranunkel to get a taste of dwarf, but he skillfully fended off both of them. Back upstairs, of the two spiders stuck in the Storm Sphere, one managed to stumble it's way out and bit Jilken's hand and the elf returned it with a shock of lightning to the spider. The other three brood spiders all hissed and spat up swarms of the smaller black spiders. Janora looked at this new horror and sighed as the large husky ran up beside Jilken and latching onto a leg with it's teeth, the dog knocked the insect on it's back. Meanwhile Vellikar's eyes lit up as he realized they were outside. With a triumphant shout and a fist to the sky, he cast Call Lightning and a thick black column of clouds instantly filled the previously clear sky above the tower. Dropping his fist, he brought another bolt of lightning landing between two of the brood spiders. One of the brood spiders stumbled from the shock, the other simply curled in on itself and stopped moving. Looking at the chaos, Denye threw a Shatter at one of the brood spiders. The loud ringing tone was enough to kill the many, but not all, of the spider swarms around it and leave the brood spider itself reeling. A flick of the wizard's claw and a bolt of lightning finished it off. Jilken brought the spear down on the prone spider that had bit her and with a single stab, killed the creature. Swinging around, Jilken finished off the last of the brood spiders and began heading downstairs. Ell, still screaming as now hundreds of spiders were chasing him cast Thunderstep and vanished only to reappear on the far side of the room. The clap of thunder killed both brood spiders and crushed a few of the swarms as well. The remaining spider swarm rushed and the young man looked panicked and shouted, "Why are you following me?" Fully annoyed at these spiders, Ranunkel cast Healing Word on himself, muttering, "You got this," before WildShaping into his stone form. The two remaining brood spiders snapped at the rocky boi and their pincers proved strong enough to pierce the rough stone. Back upstairs several of the other spider swarms crawled up onto Denye but none of their bites could get through her feathers. Seeing this, Janora sent the dog over to the wizard. The husky tried to bite at the spiders, but while it picked off one or two it wasn't very effective. With a sigh, the witch cast Shillelagh on the dogstaff and used that to knock almost half the spiders off Denye. "I've got an even better idea," said Denye, stepping away. Clapping her claws together she cast Thunderwave and the remaining swarm went flying off in all directions. Seeing that was the last of the threats, she dropped the Storm Sphere and headed back down to see what Ell was screaming about. Jilken once more slammed her spear into one of the remaining brood spiders, making it an ex-spider. She tried to repeat the move again, but the last spider scuttled back and avoided the blow. Ell, who at this point was cowering in a corner cast Create Bonfire on one of the bed/nest piles. A respectable fire started, but then the entire construct went up in flames, roasting an entire swarm of spiders. Scooting past Jilken on the stairs Denye's eyes went wide at the blaze, but quickly focused on the last brood spider. The wizard cast Magic Missile and three quick blasts of magic power knocked it from the ceiling and into the fire below. With that it was short work to squash the last of the spider swarms. As Ell finally stopped screaming, he realized the entire party was looking at him. "What," he said, "spiders have eight legs. Eight legs!!" Jilken just shook her head and said, "We didn't get much of a look around upstairs. We should see if there is anything valuable to be had. Trooping back upstairs they began to investigate. Nothing of particular interest was found, other than that one of the cocoons must have only been a few days old and contained the body of a Sahagun. After coming to the conclusion that there was nothing left to find, the group began discussing their exit strategy. Janora suggested, "If we take a few minutes, I can change my dog into a bird. Denye, if you could fly again and if Vellikar can become a giant eagle or something, then we could just leave from here." Denye shook her head, "I am exhausted and need to sleep. I don't have that kind of magic left in me." "I can still WildShape again," added Vellikar helpfully, "If we swim, I can turn into a whale again and tow you all out to the boat." "What about the wyverns?" asked Ell. Denye stuck her head out the side of the ruined tower and could see about half of the island. It appeared that all of the wyvern had fled. Turning to the others, she said, "Looks like they are all gone. I think the noise of the fight scared them off." With that information, the party began heading downstairs. Ell stopped long enough to start several fires among the webs and as he followed the others the entire roof was ablaze. Getting to the bottom of the tower it seemed as if Denye was right and the wyverns had been scared off. The team made a mad dash for the water and with a word to Captain H'ralk, they were soon heading back to Cliffside.
Report Date
31 Dec 2021
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